Does everyone feel, as I do, that these fences (along with dogparks) are the work of the Devil??

Although I must say they can get your blood pumping and legs moving when you see a seemingly unrestrained HUGE GSD charging full speed at you, while snarling,barking furiously and racing along the fence line.

No matter how many times I pass and experience this, it always gives me heart palpitations.

Chloe handles it very well. Now that she knows this dog can't get out, she refuses to even glance in his direction, no matter ballistic he goes, which infuriates him even more. My little tease!

Oh, yes, I hate "Invisible Fences"! My neighbor sells them and just about everyone in my area has bought one from him. Not us, we paid the big money and did a custom fence, it's wood picket, chain link and privacy board in front and back. I want a real fence to keep other dogs out, but even so, I still tie Fremiet to her tree in the front if she is out there for a short time.

Yes, PL, my dog does the same thing. She knows which dogs have Invisible Fences and she just struts along and does not even look at them. That makes them furious and they bark and bark. She does have dog friends that she plays with and I have to go up into those yards so they can play without getting zapped.

But on the whole, most of the dogs behind those Invisible Fences are mean. Who wouldn't be, getting zapped all the time. And many dogs will run right out of them. If the dog is chasing a cat or squirrel, they blow right thru the shock they get at the line and then they can't get back home or they get shocked again. Plus careless owners will let the batteries go dead in the collars and the dogs get out and get hit by cars.

Like so many things, Invisible Fences are for lazy dog owners who just want to kick Fido out and not be bothered...

Yeah I had a neighbour with a Golden named Elvis. He LIKED the shock he got and would stand right on the fence line, getting zapped and with a foolish look on his face. Dont' know how many times I took him home.

Also, power outages are not uncommon here. Another neighbour with 3 huge dogs who stay outside all day while the owner is gone ending up milling around in the road when the power went off. Very scary.

I don't remotely understand why anybody would want an invisible fence.
Personally I don,t have a real backyard, but if I did, I would pay big $ for a privacy fence because:
I like my privacy
I don't necessarily want people to see my dog in my yard (people can get in, and leave with the dog if they wish to!)
I strongly dislike the idea of my dog running loose because she could care less about getting shocked
I would not want dogs to come in and bring trouble in my private space
I don,t think it is smart to let people (kids, etc) come in and go out of my yard while my dog would be outside.

Where are the good points? I don't see them. Except that it's invisible. yay.

When Pete was alive, he was an escape artist, and Purple would follow his lead. We had an electric fence perimeter installed around the yard fence . This way, when the two fiends escaped, they wouldn't leave the yard. We were always alerted to the escape by Sammy, our Dalmation, barking his head off.
Now I have no escape artist, so we don't ven use it anymore.

I owned Invisible Fencing with my first pitbull. I didn't own it because I was "lazy." It was a ton of work to install, and took a long time to train him properly on it. He was a rescue dog with unreal seperation anxiety who could not be contained and just wanted to run. It cost me a fortune and I probably had somewhere around an acre 'fenced.'

The idea isn't for the dog to get 'zapped' everytime they leave the yard. People who don't know how to train their dog or are indeed "too lazy" to train them use it like that. The idea is to train the dog to acknowledge a boundary visually (with the use of flags marking the perimeter), and by a beep that warns them if they are too close to the boundaries. The 'correction' if they go through can be set to different levels, and mine was set on the equivalent of hitting your finger on a plug prong while plugging it in---startling.

My dog was on it for over ten years, only went through it and got 'corrected' once while training, and never had an issue with any other animals or people, (aside from the occassional loss of a squirrel or frog.) Mine would only have gone through it IF I forgot to change the battery, but the company had a battery program that sent you batteries usually before you even needed them.

My guy's seperation anxiety vitually disappeared after being on I.F. You should, however, make a good assessment of your dog and whether I.F. is suitable for them, and proper training to the perimeter and the warning beep are the KEY. My current dogs are not on it.

DISCLAIMER:

My posts are my own opinions unless otherwise stated. They are not necessarily correct for all dogs or all owners.

Knowing your dog and proper training is key. The 'correction' is one small aspect of the traning and should not be relied upon to contain your dog. I have seen tons of people with regular ol' mutts fail on the system because they did not train their dog on it properly. The key is the initial visual 'warning', (the flags), and the warning beep. Obviously if your dog is not trained properly, visual barriers and warning beeps or even 'zaps' mean nothing. The system is not for everyone or every dog for sure.

Aren't there a bunch of people on here that use e-collars?

DISCLAIMER:

My posts are my own opinions unless otherwise stated. They are not necessarily correct for all dogs or all owners.

I only used mine as back up, not the primary.
I will admit, that the company we bought it from was not on top of their training. They gave you a video, and poof, off to the next install. This would be an easy out for the lackadaisical owner.

Well, and alot of people I know who use them use them exclusively for when they are with their dog in the yard---but just like e-collars, many people don't use them in a manner appropriate for their dog, or any dog for that matter.

Oh well, to each his own. I owned it with great success, and as it turns out, I am not an e-collar fan.

DISCLAIMER:

My posts are my own opinions unless otherwise stated. They are not necessarily correct for all dogs or all owners.